Optical fiber cables are being used with increasing frequency in the Communications and Electronic Industry to transmit and receive voice, data and information signals. Optical fiber cables, as used in the Communications Industry, consist of a number of light carrying conductors or fibers that may individually appear in the cable or appear as polymer ribbons each holding an array of the fibers. Typically, each light carrying fiber comprises a filamentary core region having a high index of refraction and is surrounded by a cladding region having a lower index of refraction. The fiber is then coated with a polymer material.
In interconnecting optical fiber cables it is necessary to align the filamentary core regions of two corresponding fibers and abut the ends together to obtain a low coupling loss. Substrate devices are oftentimes used to terminate the fibers which are each positioned in parallel channels formed on one chip substrate with another chip substrate positioned on top thereof to form the substrate device. One end of the substrate device is polished such that the ends of the fibers are located in the end perpendicular to the end planar surface of the substrate device. In interconnecting optical fiber cables the polished end of one substrate device terminating fibers of a cable is aligned with and abutted against the polished end of another substrate device terminating fibers of a second cable. Both substrate devices are mechanically locked together to prevent one substrate device from being disengaged with the other. In another arrangement complex electrical switching apparatus is arranged to hold several substrate devices and mechanically switch one substrate device in and out of alignment with another substrate device for the purpose of interconnecting optical fiber cables together.
Communication and electronic systems often include plug-in type of circuit boards that are inserted into equipment mounting apparatus to engage backplanes for interconnecting the circuit boards with inter-apparatus cabling. Although component apparatus for modulating and demodulating signals onto optical fibers may be assembled on plug-in circuit boards a problem arises with the aforementioned interconnection locking and switching apparatus in enabling plug-in circuit boards to be installed in equipment mounting apparatus without requiring the operation of switching or the assembly and disassembly of connector locking apparatus. Similarly, a problem arises in the use of locking and switching apparatus to interconnect optical fiber cables together so that equipment mounting frames may be easily installed at a system location and quickly coupled together to form a working system.
The foregoing and other problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved by connector apparatus arranged for use in enabling optical fiber cables to be slidably coupled together and for enabling optical apparatus installed on a plug-in circuit board to be slidably coupled with an optical fiber cable terminated on a backplane as the circuit board is installed in equipment mounting apparatus.